Let’s read Jeremiah 25:27-29, “Therefore you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Drink, be drunk and vomit! Fall and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you. And it shall be if they refuse to take the cup from your hand to drink, then you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: You shall certainly drink! For behold, I begin to bring calamity on the city which is called by My name, and should you be utterly unpunished? You shall not be unpunished, for I will call for a sword on all the inhabitants of the earth,’ says the LORD of hosts” (NKJV).

In this solemn passage, the Lord is telling the nations who have rebelled against Him that they are going to be judged for their sins. He uses the symbol of a CUP OF WINE to illustrate this. Just as a man becomes drunk with wine, resulting in vomiting and falling down, so the nations who dared to defy God will drink of the wine of His wrath and fall and never rise again. Jeremiah was repeating what he said back in verses 15-17, “For thus says that LORD God of Israel to me: ‘Take this wine cup of fury from My hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send you, to drink it. And they will drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword that I will send among them.’ Then I took the cup from the LORD’S hand, and made all the nations drink, to whom the LORD had sent me.” There would be those who refuse to believe it, but God declared through His faithful prophet, “You shall certainly drink!”

Who were the nations that would drink from God’s cup of judgment? In 1st Peter 4:17 we read, “For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God…” This means that God will judge those who have the most responsibility FIRST, and thus we read in verse 18 of our chapter that the first nation to drink of God’s wrath would be “Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, its kings and its princes.” God had warned His earthly people Israel of coming judgment for many years yet they had refused to believe it. But God’s longsuffering had come to an end and the cup of wrath, which was filled to the brim, was pressed to their lips! The surrounding nations would be next, as we see in verses 19-26, “Pharaoh king of Egypt, his servants, his princes, and all his people; all the mixed multitude, all the kings of the land of Uz, all the kings of the land of the Philistines…Edom, Moab, and the people of Ammon; all the kings of Tyre, all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the coastlands which are across the sea…all the kings of Arabia…all the kings of Zimri…Elam…the Medes; all the kings of the north, far and near…all the kingdoms of the world which are on the face of the earth. Also the king of Sheshach shall drink after them.”

In closing, let me appeal to all those who have not obeyed the gospel of Jesus Christ by accepting Him as your personal savior. I quoted the first half of 1st Peter 4:17 above and now I’ll quote the second half, “And if it (judgment) begins at us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?” Ah, dear unsaved friend, if you refuse to “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved” (see Acts 16:31), you will certainly experience God’s holy wrath for all eternity. God will press to the lips of all who reject His Son as their savior the “cup of wrath.” We read of this cup in Revelation 14:9-11, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also DRINK OF THE WINE OF THE WRATH OF GOD, which is poured out full strength into THE CUP OF HIS INDIGNATION. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night.” God is telling all Christ-rejecters in this passage “You shall certainly drink!” I would appeal to you right now to come to Christ for salvation, for at the cross He drank the cup of God’s wrath in your place (see Matthew 26:39; John 18:11). Through Christ God offers you the “cup of salvation” (see Psalm 116:13) and if you will drink it, you will never drink the “cup of God’s wrath.” (331.1) (DO)